Nasser Daneshvary, a longtime UNLV economics professor and the director of its Lied Institute for Real Estate Studies, died Saturday of an apparent heart attack. He was 62.

“Nasser was a friend and great contributor to the growth and prestige of the UNLV campus,” university President Neal Smatresk said in a statement. “We will all miss him and send our deepest sympathies to his wife Rennae and his family.”

A native of Iran, Daneshvary oversaw the development of an international business major, the university's executive master’s degree in business administration and a dual master’s degree in business programs with the law and dental schools.

He arrived at UNLV in 1990 as an assistant professor of economics. He received tenure and was promoted to associate professor in 1992. He became a full professor in 1995 and was appointed director of the Lied Institute in 2010.

Before UNLV, Daneshvary worked at Southeast Missouri State University, Norwich University in Vermont and Tusculum College in Tennessee.

He is survived by his wife, Rennae, associate director of research and administration at the Center for Business & Economic Research at UNLV; and his son, Arash Vasegh-Daneshvary.